Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Well there is! I didnt have my camera on me today (duh!) but our chrysalis 'cage' and live chrysalis arrived yesterday while I wasn't there. We were lucky enough to be in class when the chrysalis opened today and my kids went nuts! I will post some pics tomorrow :) For the Aussie teachers out there, we ordered them through http://www.butterflyadventures.com.au/butterflychrysaliskit.html and there weren't that expensive. once you have bought the kit, the enclosure is yours to keep and you can just keep 'reordering' the chrysalis. Give it a go!

I'm also thinking about inviting YOU to blog here! If this is something you would be interested in, leave me a comment here or send me an email b_beynon@hotmail.com

Friday, August 24, 2012

Well apologies for posting twice in one day. But when I posted Therapeutic Thursday it was Friday here and now its Saturday so I'm posting Freebie Friday....I know it all sounds a little confusing but I find it hard to sometimes keep on blogland time.But to the freebies. I thought I would post my current freebies all in one spot!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

When I saw this little linky over at Funky First Grade Fun, I thought it would be interesting to see what other teachers had to offer. I put a lot of time at the beginning of the year into stressing that we are a "team" and when one member of the team is not doing their job the whole team will suffer. I even named our class blog Team 2B to get that sense of team moral going.I also talk a lot about risk taking. I know this is a hard concept for my Year 2s to get and know that it is definitely a behaviour that is hard to demonstrate.My favourite book to read to get students thinking about their choices is

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”

Sunday, August 19, 2012

That's it! My (personal) children had been bugging me for aaaaggggesssss to go on a bus. So bus we did go. We traveled on the bus to the next suburb - all up about 10 minutes. Got off, walked around, bought a coffee and then jumped on a train and traveled 5 minutes back home.

And the result?

Much thanks from my babies

The freebie is two motivational signs, perfect for back to school. At times, we know kids can get a little down because people tell them they can't do things - or they tell themselves the same thing. These two cute signs feature sayings that I found motivational back in my competitive swimming days. Click HERE to go grab them from googledocs.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Well I know that this is not a new thing for a lot of people. But for me it is!Here in Australia, I have never once heard this literacy program mentioned. We have numerous literacy programs available, depending on which one your principal signs your school up for. At my school, we participate in a program called ALERT. There is also Accelerated Literacy, Best Start, Focus on Reading, Key into Comprehension....the list is very very long.But I thought with everyone posting about the Daily 5, that I should find out why it is so popular.I have only read through the first 4 chapters and already I can see ways to make my reading time more meaningful. The first thing that really got me thinking was 'good fit books'. I have a fairly sizable class library. I have just taken the step of separating non-fiction from chapter books, picture books from joke books. They are all in separate boxes so that the kids can figure out what they want to read and access it easily. But I had honestly never thought about teaching them HOW to choose a book and what a good fit book should look like and feel like. We started talking about it in class yesterday and I really appreciate the concept and definitely will implement this into the classroom, especially with my less confident readers.The second bit a have taken on board straight away is the modelling aspect. The book said that as teachers, we model what we want from students but usually only once or twice and then we expect our kids to know what to do. But modelling needs to be practiced repeatedly in order to get the results you are looking for. This is something I am definitely going to begin with next week and not just in reading lessons but in all small group activities.At the very beginning of the book, the sisters laid out why they came up with this program and the reason was because they were spending too much of their instruction time on things that took them away from the reading instruction. I could have said those very words myself! If this program helps me to actually FOCUS ON READING rather than correctly behaviours or settling kids, then I will be a happy teacher.What are your Daily 5 experiences? Do you feel that it gives you more time for the instruction side of lessons? I'd love to hear your stories.On something else, Tammy at 1,2,3 Teach with Me is celebrating her 400 followers with a giveaway! I'm donating an item from my TpT store along with lots of other bloggers! Click the pic to visit her blog and get your entries in.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Hi all Are you exhausted from all the BTS shopping! I am pretty sure that I spent wayyyyy too much money! But it is sooo much fun! My store is on sale for ONE MORE DAY for 20% off. Go a grab that bargain with your TPT credit points you have built up. Click HERE to go and have a look. I am guest blogging about classroom management over at Second Grade Sugar and Spice today and there is a cute little freebie for you. Thanks so much Christina for letting me crash your super cute blog!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

It's nearly here! The much awaited TPT Back to school sale! Ill be offering 20% off in my entire store PLUS you can use the promo code for a further 10%, saving you 28%. Great deal!

Click the banner to go and visit my store!

Well I know you must love shopping? And hands up if your TPT wishlist is choc-a-block of teachery goodness?

You.Are.Not.Alone!!!

What's in your cart linky aims to help you with your shopping experience lol. Cassie at Adventures in Room 5 is hosting this linky where other bloggers share what is on their list for back to school (or if you are only halfway through the year like me, those 'essential' top up items).My top 3 sorry 4 - I just couldn't pick! (click on the pictures to go and wishlist it too)

Sports themed Maths Centres from The Bubbly Blonde - can't you see the boys just lapping up maths?

Sticky Note research projects by Sarah Cooley - I love this simple idea for organising young students information gathering!

Our Wonderland Classroom set from Shanyn Newell (Coffee, Kids and Compulsive Lists) - if you haven't picked a theme this one looks sooooo cute!!

How to Frost a Cupcake! by Ginger Watkins (Ginger Snaps) - soooo cute, great and engaging writing activity and craftivity.

Make sure you check out these great little products! And while you are there, check these out as well in my TPT store.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

"I can't believe I am actually growing a real live plant!" This has to be the best quote I have seen in my kids seed diary. So far, we are on Day 18 of our broadbean in a cup adventure and they are going great guns! The kids come in every day so pumped to see what is happening and it is not unusal for them to call out during seed diary writing time "Mrs Beynon I saw mine grow a bit!" Hehe so funny and awesome.Here is a pic of our best two growing cups from Day 14 (last week).

I will definately do one more update before the kids take them home to kill them plant them. The root system is incredible! Have you ever grown broadbeans in a cup? My recommendation is - DO IT! My next adventure is to (hopefully) hatch a butterfly from a chrysalis. Any stories about you doing this in your classroom?

My fantastic finds are these....

I went to a second hand baby and kids market a few weekends ago and this is what I walked away with for my classroom. From the top left Build a Sentence game $2, huge bucket of cotton reels $1, big bag of Playdoh cutters etc $2 and the DK Silly sentences game $2. Great shopping don't you think?

Ahhhh gluesticks, the bane of any teachers exsistence. You buy lots, they disappear. You buy none, there is none. You understand what I am talking about! Well these my friends were reduced from $2.49 to 59cents each! I only bought 10 but plan to go back and grab some more. For my Australian friends, that was at Woolworths :) Good luck I hope you find some.

Friday, August 3, 2012

I have been very quiet. I am very tired. Here in Australia the Olympic finals for swimming (which I love) start at 4.30am every day. So I have been getting up at 4.30 EVERY DAY. I must admit that this morning I did not see much swimming (I may have closed my eyes for the event I wasn't too interested in) but I have been so blown away by some performances (and sadly not really by the Aussies). My Olympic awesome moments have to be Michael Phelps - what an ABSOLUTE legend!, Rebecca Soni (another American) and Chad Le Clos (the South African that beat Phelps in the 200m fly).

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

I was excited to see this idea from Ms Stanford and immediately signed up. I'm always interested to get feedback on my items, being fairly new to the game.

I was paired up with Haley from Following Optimism.

I chose her Number Sentences - Using Equal and Not Equal. Here is her store.

The first thing I did was print the anchor charts and laminated them. These formed the visual reference for my kids about what the different sign looked like.

All my printing ready to go! The packet has worksheets that deal with simple addition and subtraction as well as two digit addition and subtraction with and without trading. I only printed the simple and two digit without trading as I thought my kids would struggle a bit with the others.

I paired my kids up, a stronger student with a weaker student because they hadn't done this concept before. The pairs worked really well together and my stronger kids learnt a lot by taking the lead at times and learning to step back and let the other student have a turn too.

Using our fingers to count on.

An example on our whiteboard to help.

The worksheets fitted the bill of providing a resource that is hard to find. I found the range of difficulty good as it meant that the packet catered to the whole class and would be useful in Year 3 classes as well.It was well created, the text was easy to read and the charts provided a good visual.

Thanks Haley for letting me try your Number Sentences :) Go to her blog to read the review of my Dice and Card Games.